


Breathe (2 AM)

by wesawbears



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 03:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10428057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wesawbears/pseuds/wesawbears
Summary: Ten years after his death, Kevin and Jean finally lay Riko to rest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Playlist for this fic: Shake it Out by Florence and the Machine and Clean by Taylor Swift

Kevin parked the car and leaned his head against the steering wheel. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be doing this. He had practice in the morning and eleven years of unfucking his sleep schedule out of the Nest and age meant that being awake at 1 AM and still functioning the next day wasn’t very feasible.

Still, this was too long coming. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.

Jean was leaned up against the door of his car, ankles crossed and finishing up a cigarette. He only smoked when he was staving off a panic attack. Kevin considered bringing it up, but remembered the stash of vodka he pulled out once a year and let it drop.

Instead, he opened with, “Does Jeremy know you’re here?”

Jean crushed the cigarette under his foot and said, “We’re dealing with it tomorrow. He trusts me to do what I have to do.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s happy about it though?”

Jean looked annoyed and sent back, “Do Andrew and Neil know?”

“I asked if Neil wanted to come. He said he’d made his peace. Andrew just told me not to make him come get me.”

Jean nodded and moved away from the door. “Shall we get this over with?”

Kevin nodded and followed. Years later, standing in front of Evermore didn’t fill Kevin with fear as much as exhaustion. He was tired of carrying around the nagging feeling that kept him constantly on the precipice of moving on. His therapist told him it was from lack of closure. It was fucked up, but he’d never gotten to say goodbye. He’d dealt with his grief by visiting Riko’s grave at the five year anniversary, but he still hadn’t let go of the anger that lingered in his throat and burned his stomach every day. Apparently now, at the tenth anniversary of Riko’s death, Jean felt the same.

“You have it?” Jean asked.

Kevin nodded and took Riko’s jersey out of his bag. They had found it in his things and gave it to Kevin at the funeral. SInce then, it had sat in his closet like a ghost. Or maybe a skeleton was more apt.

Jean took it from him and tossed it on the ground before sitting across from it on the grass. Kevin joined him and they sat in silence for a few minutes before Jean said, “You know his birthday was actually in September? Fucking number 9.”

For whatever reason, that makes Kevin laugh hysterically until Jean joins in and it feels like turning sixteen and passing a bottle between them and coughing when they felt the burn of the alcohol.

When it died down, Jean went on, “Mine’s probably in July or something, but I don’t even remember because of him.”

“Does it matter?”

“No. Just stating facts.”

“Do you think he ever could have been better?”

Jean huffed and answered, “I really don’t. And if he could, I don’t care. It doesn’t change a goddamn thing.”

Kevin nodded and rested his head on his knees. “We need to be gone before people show up for practice.”

“We will be. I told Jeremy I’d be back before he woke up.”

Kevin wanted to scream and rage let out everything he had been feeling for years, but sitting with Jean at now two in the morning, knowing it was the last time he’d ever have to see a number one on a Ravens jersey felt just as good.

They move to leave and twists the jersey into the ground with his boot. Kevin doesn’t glance back and he thinks Jean almost looks approving. They shake hands before they get in their cars and Kevin’s hopeful.

He drives to a field and true to his promise, he doesn’t call Andrew. He calls Neil.

They pull up half an hour later and Neil sits next to him and curls up against him in his exhaustion from being woken up. He knows he’ll get bitched at by Andrew for this later, but for now Andrew offers his hand palm up over Neil’s knees. He takes and stares out at the sky until the sun rises.


End file.
